Damn You Craig Manning
by Kelly123
Summary: Slight Futurefic. One day, one boy, one girl, one extremely hostile car ride. ONESHOT.


_Been kinda serious lately in good ole Degrassi, hasn't i?. People getting stabbed, people doing cocaine, people protesting cheerleading events... sheesh, things certainly have changed since I was but a wee little kiddo. With all this tension, I needed some fluff. So I wrote this. It's pretty random and kinda AU, I don't think Craig went to rehab or started snorting. **Short,** and almost all dialogue, but try it out would you? It's no school rivalry, but hey, maybe it will do._

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"Fuck you Manning."

Silence. Her only response was dead silence, marred by nothing but the faint din of outside traffic and her own raucously pounding heart. She sharpened her tone, squared her shoulders, and spoke again.

"I _hate_ you. Go to hell."

"Okay. Whatever you say baby." Said the brunette behind the wheel with a smile.

"Oh, damnit! Damn you to the ends of the earth Craig! I _mean_ it!"

"You always do, don't you?"

Her eyes narrowed and her jaw tensed. She pressed her heels down firmly into the floorboard, as if by pushing hard enough she could both halt the treacherous vehicle and calm her quivering legs.

"Quit acting so fucking self-righteous, you deceitful bastard" she muttered through clenched teeth, "Quit playing the hero and get your head in check. You have no idea what the consequences of your actions could be."

"Actually, I think I have a pretty good idea of the outcome. Doesn't seem too bad to me."

"Not too bad! For you maybe! But as for me... Jesus Craig, I will _never_ forgive you if you go through with this, do you hear me? _Never_. You think about that long and hard mister, because never is a _hell_ of a long time. Are you sure you're willing to risk _never_?"

He paused for a second before replying, and in the instant before his words came, her hammering chest swelled with hope.

"Yeah, I think it's a chance I'm prepared to take."

"UGGGGGGGGGH! Fuck _you_ Manning! You, you, you...you don't love me anymore Craig! I just don't understand why you don't love me anymore!" she whimpering, desperately switching tactics as the miles ticked down.

"Oh God, okay _Manny_." He scoffed.

"But it's true! You can't possibly love me like you used to!" the redhead implored of the boy seated next to her, ignoring the baited insult with resilient single-minded persistence.

"And just how do you figure on that Elle?"

"You can't love me, you just can't! If you _really_ loved me there is no way you could be doing this to me!"

"You're being ridiculous again."

"Don't call me ridiculous, isn't it enough that you're putting me through this, and that don't love me anymore, now you have to break my heart into even tinier slivers by stooping to name-calling as well?"

"Good Lord."

"Good Lord what?"

"Good Lord I can't believe I was ever stupid enough to fall in love with someone as ridiculous as you, crazy lady."

"You liar!"

"What, you're not ridiculous?"

"No, you don't love me!" he quirked an eyebrow in her direction. "And I'm not ridiculous either!"

"Ahh, so sorry ma'am, how could I _ever_ have been mistaken? Because the whole shrieking act? Well let me tell you, it's _really_ helping out your sanity defense."

"Sarcasm will get you nowhere Manning."

"Really?" he drawled, taking the opportunity at a red light to turn his head towards his companion and letting his eyes roam her curves unabashedly. "I'm sorry, but I'd have to say it has gotten me _pretty_ far in the past."

"Go through with this and it's not going to get you _anything_ for a long, long time. In fact, the word never comes to mind."

"So let me get this straight, are you threatening to withhold sex from me if I don't turn this car around and take you home right now?"

"Yes sirree."

"Well..."

"Yeah!?"

"No."

"Asshole!"

"Love you too, dah-ling." He purred, accelerating through the intersection as the light turned green.

"Seriously Craig, as your friend, as your fiancé, as the girl who can and will perform all sorts of mind-blowing unmentionables on your unmentionables, I am asking you please, _don't do this_! Please, please, you _know_ I don't beg, but I am _begging_ you here!"

Her voice hitched slightly as she spoke, and her knuckles were white on the defenseless leather of the armrest. She was terrified, and vulnerable, and she hated it.

"I know it scares you Ellie, but you _have_ to do this." He soothed, his hand moving from steering wheel and slipping over her own, his thumb slowly rubbing soft circles across her blanched knuckles. "It hard, but its part of being a grown up. I hate to break it to you baby, but unfortunately we are just about pretty much grown up by now."

"But I don't wanna." She whispered mournfully as he pulled into a parking space and turned the engine off.

"Don't wanna what? Be a grown up or do this?"

"Neither." She answered, watching with a pout as he got out of the car and started walking around to her door. However, if she had her way (which she must, the alternative being almost to awful to consider), he most certainly would _not_ her helping her up. In an instant the whirlwind of panic closing in all around her subsided, its calm aftermath revealing to her a most perfect solution. Her eyes, once swimming with unshed tears, now sparked maniacally, and the corners of her mouth whipped up into a devious sneer. With one swift motion her arm shot over to the driver's seat and flipped the lock on the car door, which gave a satisfying click that warmed her down to the tips of her toes. Her smile spread even wider, her eyes gleaming even more brightly, and she turned her face towards the window triumphantly.

"AH-HA! I told you I wasn't going! _Now_ who's the grown-up, Manning?"

But her husband-to-be only shook his head slightly and smiled affectionately back at her.

"Elle...I have the keys. Come on now, you didn't think you were going to get out of going to the dentist that easily, did you?"

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_Went to the dentist Monday...he says the wisdom teeth have got to go. AHHHHHHH!_


End file.
